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Auto Trash Collection For All Expected By Christmas

By Christmas, the entirety of Fort Smith could be receiving automated trash collection, according to the city’s sanitation director.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors on Thursday voted 7-0 to proceed with the last phase of conversion to curbside, automated trash collection. Twice this year, the board voted 4-3 to let a total of 4,100 households retain manual collection from their alleyways.

The unexpected move, initiated by At-Large Director Philip Merry Jr., ended months of debate over trash service in older neighborhoods.

“It was totally unanticipated,” Sanitation Director Baridi Nkokheli said Friday. “It’s a happy happenstance. Hopefully, the city can start the healing process and move on to more important issues.”

Other city leaders were equally surprised. On Friday, Ward 2 Director Andre Good said he wanted to know how the request for 100-percent automation came about.

“I really want to hear first-hand what happened,” he said.

Merry told directors he was a messenger for the residents. Carolyn Plank, who, along with other neighbors, fought to secure alleyway service, said a decision was made by residents to leave the trash debate behind and move forward with automation.

Residents have cited hardships in getting the wheeled trash carts to the curbs of elevated homes, street appearance and general convenience. The exemptions began earlier this year with Park Hill East, followed by the rest of Park Hill, the Belle Grove Historic District and others.

Without manual service holding his department back, Nkokheli said he will likely approach the Board of Directors in mid-2013 about a monthly rate reduction of at least $1.10 citywide.

“We think that’s a minimum,” he said. “We estimate a savings over the next decade of $3.69 million. That just goes to show you the efficiencies of automated refuse collection.”

If Nkokheli pulls the remaining households into automated service by the end of the year as planned, “it will be exactly six years after automated officially began.”

“We’re going to make every effort to make it happen before the end of the year,” he said. “I think we will actually be able to implement automation in the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

A specialized service called the troubleshooter program will remain an option for residents with physical limitations or who have obstacles between their homes and curbs.

“Of course for these households, for whatever reason — physical limitations or structure limitations — those folks would qualify for the troubleshooter program,” Nkokheli said. “Those folks will continue using their regular garbage cans and bags that will be picked up from the side of their homes.”

That service utilizes one manual truck and one employee, who also deals with other customer service issues like missed pickups. In the past 12 months, 4,191 households have taken advantage of the service, Nkokheli said.

He added that he does not anticipate an influx of new troubleshooter customers.

“We already know how many of the households do not have direct access to the curb,” he said. “What we don’t know is how many might have a physical limitation.”

An automated truck purchased this year as a replacement for an older model will be used full time.

“We’ve been using that older truck as a maintenance, back-up spare,” Nkokheli said. “But we’ll have enough. We won’t have to buy a new truck. We will, however, need to buy new carts. From the inception of the program, the carts have actually cost us more than the trucks.”

New wheeled carts are expected by Dec. 3. The standard size is 95 gallons, but 65-gallon containers may be requested.

The next step, Nkokheli said, is to automate recycling.

It remains unclear whether a ballot initiative supporting citywide automated collection will proceed to the November election. The initiative’s creator, Joel Culberson, said Thursday he was moving forward with plans to rework the ballot language and secure 10 more signatures, as requested by the city following a review of the 3,000-plus signature petition.